Tuesday Bolts – 3.22.11

Scott Schroeder of Ridiculous Upside with a response to last week’s D-League post: “Keep in mind that no other team has come even close to getting creative and creating this sort of bond between their NBA and D-League team with even one player — and the Thunder have done it with three of their draft picks from the past two seasons. It might not be the easiest way to utilize the D-League, but the Thunder have proven that where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Kevin Pelton on James Harden’s progression: “Harden’s improvement has been twofold. First, in addition to minutes, he’s getting most of the extra touches and shot attempts that once went to Green — whose replacement in the lineup, fellow second-year standout Serge Ibaka, is less of a scoring threat. Harden’s usage rate has increased from 17.9 percent of the Thunder’s plays to 23.5 percent. Even with the increased responsibility, Harden has been accurate from the field. His 63.8 percent mark on 2-point attempts has powered a true shooting percentage of 62.7 percent, up from 59.2 percent before the deadline. Harden won’t continue to shoot so accurately inside the arc, but that figures to be somewhat offset by an improvement in his 3-point shooting (just 32.8 percent since the deadline, down from 36.7 percent).”

Susan Bible of HoopsWorld on the development of Serge Ibaka: “After absorbing the news of Oklahoma City Thunder’s February acquisition of Kendrick Perkins, thoughts turned to Serge Ibaka. Would the 6’10” player finally take over the starting power forward position on a permanent basis with Perkins at center? Coach Scott Brooks did insert Ibaka into the starting lineup the day following the trade; now with Perkins healthy, the two start together presenting a formidable frontcourt tandem. One thing was immediately known with this trade: Ibaka would learn invaluable lessons from the champion veteran center. The bonding between the two teammates has already commenced.”

The Onion zings KD and Brian Davis: “Amidst a hot streak Sunday in which Thunder star Kevin Durant hit four field goals in a row against the Raptors, excited and extremely realistic play-by-play man Brian Davis could be heard singing the forward’s praises at the top of his lungs while carefully acknowledging that those previous positive results had no statistical influence on future shots. “It seems like he’s on fire, but it’s more a mathematical anomaly than anything!” Davis yelled, noting that Durant’s lifetime field-goal percentage, weighted toward his current season tally, was a better indicator of whether or not he would make the next shot than anything that might be inferred by his hitting four in a row.”

A lot of people mentioned to me that yesterday on SportsNation, Michael Vick said his favorite team is the Thunder and the reason for it is simple: Kevin Durant.

Tom Ziller of SBNation: “Lest we overrate Kendrick Perkins’ impact a little, Toronto did a solid job scoring on OKC on Sunday, and the Thunder’s West foes certainly have big men who can step out like Andrea Bargnani did. A bigger concern is that the Thunder don’t seem dialed in quite yet. When’s the razor focus Kevin Durant has become famous for going to return?”

MVP watch from NBA.com: “Some in Oklahoma City are calling Durant’s effort at Miami Wednesday the greatest game of his career. Hard to say, but the thin man did score 29 points with seven rebounds and six assists, and his 13-of-21 shooting included 10-of-15 when guarded by LeBron James.“

I probably should have said could Ibaka take a 3 if a "critical game" situation arose. Like in an upcoming playoff game, if they doubled KD or Russ or Harden on a possession. It would be better in most cases for him to cut to the hoop or take a shot within his existing range but sometimes you need a 3 or that is where the floor space is. It could happen. Just speculating a bit on the possibility a key play comes to this.

I wouldn't propose he do it regularly... unless he was expected to be 35% or better from there.

@f5alcon

Yeah, thanks for the reminder about those few makes.

I checked his European stats and he didn't hit any 3s over there. If he had that would lend more support to the idea.

But Ibaka should master being a traditional PF first. If he can add being a modern perimeter PF on top of that some day, that might be good, if it is stand-by plan B and not the easy way out from inside work.

Getting Ibaka to expand his range seems to run counter to what we want him to be doing. I don't care to up his usage if that just means more ~42FG% jumpers. Teams know he can hit that shot now, but I'm not interested in turning him into Nenad Krstic. He has the speed and power to develop a solid face-up game. Ibaka drives with the ball very rarely, even with an open path. And I don't think I've ever seen him pump-fake and drive.

Nene's arsenal is built on great timing and the ability to find space cutting to the basket; a solid iso game from 18 feet out with the ability to shoot the J or explode past his man; great footwork and quickness with back to the basket spin-and-drives; and crafty feints, turnarounds, and up-and-unders when he's able to get the ball deep in the post. Ibaka won't develop that whole array, certainly not right away, but that's the direction I'd be coaching him. I want to harness Ibaka's athleticism in the direction where it'll provide the biggest advantage, not turn him into a super-athletic jump shooter.

Yeah easy for Ibaka to increase the assist rate from such a very low number, but the turnover decrease is more legit.

I could see the possibility of Nene type scoring numbers- if he can get the shots from others and the support of the Coach for it. He has a higher % of jumpshots over post plays than Nene but he is something of an inside - outside threat.

Wonder about his ability to hit a 3 pointer if the situation arose. Wonder if he practices it much.

@CrowMore seriously, I think the plan is to have him do a lot more than catch-and-shoot. Nene-type offensive threat is probably Serge's ceiling, and while it's unrealistic to think that he'll cash in on all of his potential, I think that's where we'll (hopefully) see the most growth from him as he develops.

J5 :@f5alconI was thinking about wearing my DT shirt so I would be easy to spot, but the only one I have is a broingtons one…The pic of JG on the back might be too soon.

Haha. that reminds me of teh WOddy Allen movie where Allen Alda says that comedy is "Tragedy plus Time." I appreciate your sensitivity towards teh issue. One might see it as your alelgience to Uncle Jeff. It might get you rave reviews.

On many main boxscore stats Ibaka is about the same as last season. There is the recent block explosion. Other than that, the main boxscore changes are a 40% decrease in turnovers and a 60% increase in assist rate. He is not asked to do much with the ball other than catch n' shoot but it is still a good 1 year improvement. 14th lowest TO% in the league for rotation guys 6-9 and over.

At team level and with the lineups he has been used with, the offense does not suffer compared to him off the court as it did last season.

kfmsooner :@alexfromgermany I’ve said that before, but noone on this board seemed to care. Your face should not be a drastically different color than the rest of your body.She has toned it down lately…

Check out this defensive breakdown from the Raptor's game. Tell me JH is not WIDE open. Imagine if Ibaka steps over and sets a screen there as James moves toward the wing... One of these days they'll figure it out.

My wife always points it out and the makeup. I try to tell her that you usually have to overdue makeup in theater and on camera and that HD usually accentuates people's make up jobs. It's horrible to watch the ESPN announcers in HD on a big screen TV. All their faces have an orange hue.

Yeah, it was the switching back and forth between pronunciations that I found most annoying. Some people pronounce Augustine as Au-GUST-in, so if BD thought it was right and pronounced DJ name wrong the whole time, fine someone correct him. But to say, Au-GUST-in one second, Au-gus-teen, the next, and then go back and forth at will is just ludicrous.

It's fine that it was pronounced that way back then. It's never been pronounced that way in the NBA for DJ. Then BD switched back and forth on his own pronunciation. And, we will all remember him pronouncing Krstic one way and GL pronouncing it totally differently for 2 seasons...BD is just maddening.

At the beginning of this season, 63 former D-league players were on the opening day NBA rosters. There was only about 420 players total! That means 15% of the NBA has spent time in the D-league. Dude, you're dead wrong about the D-league not mattering.

No NBA team has used the D-league in the manner OKC is using the D-league, as a true farm team.There is no doubt that current members of Tulsa will eventually provide cheap bench help for OKC.

Most of the NBA, by definition, is bench players! What exactly is your point that the D-league only produces NBA bench players? If you have a means of developing good players you use it.

You're right. I was just objecting to your terminology. "Fatal" implies that we're dead, which was probably true as far as winning a championship, but we'd already proven that we could give the eventual champion a scare even with Nenad and Jeff. To overtake the Lakers, we needed to fix our glaring problems...but then, isn't that the case for every other team in the NBA, too? There's only one winner. Everybody else has work to do. I think it's kinda funny that the two teams who came the closest to beating the Lakers in the post-season traded parts of their core with each other...and each team thinks they got what they needed. Maybe Ainge and Presti will both be proven right and we'll end up playing the Celtics for the championship...which we'll win, of course, since we got the better end of the deal. lol

@SkeletorI'd take two rounds with home court advantage any day. Duncan is expected back before the playoffs start anyway. I'll take my chances against a depleted (no Gay) Memphis team over a recovering San Antonio.

Oh, and as I tried to explain to people during the gamethread Brian Davis's pronunciation, "DJ Au-GUST-in" is how general scholarship pronounces the name of the fifth century saint from Hippo. Nevertheless, it is not how DJ pronounces his name, nor how Americans pronounce the name of the city in Florida, or how Americans pronounce St. Augustine in general.

That said, we better take care of business between now and the end of the year because, if we don't, the Duncan injury might hurt us more than it helps us: the Duncan-less Spurs play DEN once and PDX twice between now and the end of the season. With how those two have been playing lately, securing home court should be the only thing our players are focussed on right now.

Zach Lowe on Duncan:Duncan is the main (and possibly only) thing standing between the Spurs and defensive mediocrity. He is the team’s sole reliable rim protector, and the Spurs have quietly allowed a whopping six more points per 100 possessions with Duncan on the bench this season, according to Basketball Value. For the 28 minutes Duncan is on the floor every game, the Spurs defend only a smidgen worse than Boston and Chicago — and that difference vanishes once you factor in how much more potent Western Conference offenses are than their counterparts in the East. With Duncan on the bench, San Antonio defends like a league-average team.

@TaoMaasI don't think we are disagreeing with each other. Krstic-Green as starters is a fatal flaw. I didn't assume they were our long term answers at those positions, but it didn't change the fact that while we had them our potential was much much lower. We were fatally flawed in our personnel. Obviously we had the assets and opportunity to change that personnel, since we did, but we can't repaint what we were just because of what we are.

@DXLHow many people do you think have played in the D-league? You named ten guys with "good NBA careers." Do you think the total number of players who've played is closer to 100 (of which 10 is 10%) or 1000 (of which 10 is 1%)? Is it even higher than 1000? Let's work smaller. In a given year, how many players are successfully called up from the D-league (that is, called up, make the rotation, and get a multi-year contract)? I'd bet it's less than 5, and that's not even talking about being any sort of positive factor for a decent team.

It IS rare for a D-leaguer to make an impact in the NBA. Even the guys you named aren't more than bench players. Sessions has started for the Cavs, but they're not much more than a D-league team themselves. Bass has started for Orlando, but only because Lewis was terrible and Dwight can cover his weaknesses.

So I know we still have a lot of work to do between now and securing our 4th seed, let alone between now and beating DEN/PDX in the first round, but if we do make it out of the first round, a hobbled Tim Duncan is awesome, awesome news for our chances of getting to the conference finals.

@doofI have never been but my ticket rep said they are expecting 2,500 people. The players will be there doing activities with kids and also talking in panel discussions. Hot dogs and soda are being served. I think it will be the worth the 2 hours, especially if I get to talk to any of the players or coaches.